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Friday, August 9, 2013

BART Strike: BART workers left to fight the forces of Wall Street alone

by Richard Mellor

Afscme local 444, retired

The San Francisco Chronicle this morning makes the point
that politicians in California are “paralyzed”
in the wake of the mass transit dispute and another possible strike after
California governor Jerry Brown put a stop to the last one at the last minute.

This paralysis is due to “offending”
voters on the one hand as the polls seem to indicate the management is winning
the propaganda war, (with the help of the mass media) and, as Democrats, fear
of losing union members’ money that the officialdom hands over to them for
their election campaigns. They have no fear of that really as the heads of
organized Labor have nowhere else to go politically.Supporting the Democratic Party is better
than running independent candidates which puts them in the hot seat as they’d
have to produce the goods. They can blame the Democrats in the present set up.

“Most of the elected
leaders have stayed on the sidelines” the Chronicle writes.But they are not on the sidelines. Their
silence has consequences and it shows how all the money these Democrats receive
from members’ hard earned money doesn’t buy much when the fight breaks out in
to the open and sides have to be taken.

As things are, the BART workers are facing a formidable combination.
They are at the negotiating table alone while the bosses have BART management,
the imported union buster and privatizer Tom Hock from Veolia, and
mediators.Mediators are not objective;
not neutral. Their job is to bring a settlement on the basis of labor peace,
which means favorable to the bosses.Mediators are a poor substitute for the power and conscious involvement
of the union rank and file and workers in our communities.

These Democratic Party politicians who refuse to take sides
have no problem taking our money. They are taking sides and they know it.They are silent in the face of a war against
workers’ living standards that is part of a general offensive against social
services and the public sector which has a higher union density than the
private and generally better working conditions. What friend, what sort of
ally, stays silent when you’re under attack?

These politicians, the Barbara Lees, Newsome’s and others
are, by their silence, by their refusal to take sides, contributing to what
will be a defeat for all workers, our communities and for the young people
looking for decent jobs.A politician or
political party that claimed to represent working people or the poor, or
claimed to be the party of the people as the Democrats do would be campaigning
for the workers in this dispute.Such a party and its political representatives should be countering the propaganda of the 1% that American workers are the
problem and that society can’t afford social services or decent jobs. They
would expose the “shared sacrifice” myth
for what it is.

But as candidates of a party of the 1% and Wall Street, it
is impossible for them to defend our interests.The Democratic Party relies on the support organized labor gives it at
election time, precinct walkers, phone banks, votes and of course money.My former union, AFSCME provided some 40,000
volunteers for Walter Mondale’s campaign.Who says we can’t have our own party? Despite giving billions to Democrats over the years it has not stopped
the assault on workers often led by the very people who received that
money.It’s no wonder some 138 million
Americans opted out of the process last election cycle.

Barbara Boxer and the other multi-millionaire, Dianne
Feinstein whose husband is the notorious coupon clipper and former sweatshop
owner Richard Blum, sent a letter to what the Chronicle refers to as the “warring parties”urging them to work together “negotiate in good faith” and all that
rubbish.

The problem is that the our organizations are infiltrated by
representatives of this Wall Street Partythrough the union officialdom. Chris Daly, the “political director”
of SEIU 1021 is a Democrat and San Francisco supervisor.Political directors in the union officialdom
are all about integrating organized Labor with this party of Wall Street and
ensuring that any movement form below that threatens this relationship is
subverted.The Democratic Party is the
political agent of the 1% inside our organizations.

We cannot drive back this offensive of capital in a money
war; they have more of it. That’s why they’re called capitalists.Our power lies in building our movement, our
unions and an independent workers political party, independent of the two
capitalist parties, in open opposition to them and based on our organizations
in the workplace and the communities in which we live and work. Our power lies
in stopping production.Let’s be a
little clearer on that issue. Stopping production is not a problem for the 1%
when they shut down factories or businesses or public services because there’s
no profit in it.Here’ they’re shifting
capital to more profitable ventures like speculation of gambling for example,
But when we do it, against their will, that is different. When they do it in defense of their economic interests it's good; when we do it in ours through refusing to work, that's bad. That's mass terrorism.

At every step of the way in this dispute the union
leadership involved has refused to take steps that could win over the public
and win advances for their members and the community at large. I have written
about this in detail during this dispute. In the first strike at the beginning
of July when ATU 1555, SEIU 1021 and Afscme 3993 struck, the drivers at AC
Transit, also in ATU but a different local chose not to come out. Not being in
that local I am not privy to the internal goings on but I was at a board
meeting a couple of weeks earlier when the rank and file of both locals packed
the room and there was a strong commitment to stand together, a strong sense of
unity. How come this never came to fruition?

Any activist knows that the international leadership in these situations keeps
an eye on things and there is no doubt in my mind that the reason the BART
workers struck alone was the leadership of ATU 192 probably in conjunction with
the international leadership made sure AC Transit drivers wouldn't go out. All sorts of fears would have
been fed.The union hierarchy is very
good at telling us what we can’t do.

To the best of my knowledge, there was no public criticism of this mistake from
the leaders of ATU 1555, AFSCME or SEIU 1021. It is taboo in the labor movement
for the leadership of one sector or local to criticize another but that’s a
mistake too; it’s a unity of leadership against the ranks. On top of this, City
of Oakland workers, also in SEIU 1021, could have struck and many other unions
are or have been in contract talks in this period. We cannot win without mass
involvement and mass action.

I cannot see the bosses allowing the BART workers to strike
again and I am sure that the top officials will make some deal. However, we have
to be conditional about such things as there is tremendous anger in society and
among the rank and file of the unions so keeping things under control is not
always possible.There will be a sincere
effort ahead I think to legislate the BART workers’ right to strike away and
because the union has no real message for the public, has nothing on the table
for the public (see other blogs under the BART label) and without a generalized
struggle drawing in the communities and the rest of the labor movement, the chances
of defeat increase if they walk off.

Because AC Transit drivers in ATU 192 have settled as have
the SEIU with the City of Oakland (a huge victory according to a high level
official but you have to talk to the dues payer to get a more accurate appraisal),
this means BART workers are out there on their own. This is what happens in all these cases, one
local or one group of workers left to fight the forces of global capitalism
alone. Important union officials from
higher bodies will talk about solidarity with BART workers or that they bring
solidarity form their members but this is simply rhetoric. In most cases these
days, their members don’t even know who they are.

We can’t win without changing course, without doing things
differently. The union officials at the highest levels, committed as they are
to the Team Concept and labor/management cooperation, will not wage a real
fight and build an offensive of our own, willnot take any steps forward unless they are absolutely forced to do so
from below. There is nothing they fear more than a victory that will unleash the
anger and frustration that millions of American workers feel after decades of
defeats.

The rank and file union member has to step up to the plate and transform this
situation.

*If you are interested in discussing where we go from here,
not simply in the Unions but what we can do to change the balance of forces in
US society more in our favor, please contact us as we are considering where we
go from here and want to discuss this with other workers and eventually have
some sort of meeting as well as possibly set up some sort of listserve for
those out of the area.Contact us at: we_know_whats_up@yahoo.com

1 comment:

Anonymous
said...

The public doesn't understand this is a fight for he middle class and not just for BART workers. Big money has managed to push the middle class down and the rich get richer. Most people don't understand this and are jealous because they don't have what BART workers have. But instead of wanting to bring BART down they need to try to bring the middle class back up. This fight for BART workers is a fight for the middle class to make a decent living, not just for BART workers. It always comes down to the bottom giving up more so the top and can have it all. What is management giving up? What is their contribution so BART can purchase these new cars? Are they losing wages or benefits? The more they can save on the workers the higher raise they get at the end. Why aren't their raises and benefits published in the papers and on the news? How about if whatever happens to the workers also happens to management? Benefits and the percentage of wages should be the same for both. Maybe then they would consider being fair and bargain in good faith.